CONFIRMEDEditor’s note from Warren: We received the following by email on 9 January. We publish all correspondence from participants in the programme in full and unedited, as a matter of policy. Jaxon has asked that we not call him a participant in the programme. Noted. — W.D.
Hi Warren,
Jaxon here. Cheryl’s son. We met at the Show in 2017 when you asked me to stand next to the silo “for scale”.
I’m writing because a bloke at work found the website and now there is a printout of the Christmas 1999 Polaroid on the kitchen fridge at the office with “GLOW BOY” written on it in whiteboard marker. I have taken it down twice. It keeps coming back. I think this is what Mum means when she talks about repeat visitation.
I’d like to ask, as politely as I can, for the following corrections to the record:
1. I am not a hybrid. I am just tall. Dad’s side are all tall. There is a photo of my grandfather standing next to a horse and the horse looks concerned. Nobody has ever suggested my grandfather was fathered by a Grey, although to be fair nobody has asked.
2. The glow in the Polaroid is tinsel. Nan had about four kilometres of it up that year. Everyone in every photo from that Christmas is glowing. Uncle Terry is glowing. Uncle Terry is many things but he is not a hybrid, he’s a plumber.
3. “Gary” is not my father. My father is a man named Craig who lives in Rockhampton and sends a card most years. I understand why Mum prefers the Gary version. Honestly, having met Craig, some days so do I. But the record should reflect that I have a human dad with a human name and a human boat he will not stop talking about.
4. I could not “read at two”. I could recognise the Woolworths logo at two. Mum has extended this somewhat.
5. I work in IT. This is not evidence of anything. Lots of people work in IT. We are not a programme. We are a help desk.
I want to say clearly that I love my mum. She is the kindest person I know and she has never once missed a birthday, a school thing or a Tuesday, and I know which one of those she’d have dropped if she had to. If believing a seven-foot Grey with a clipboard chose her for something makes the 3 ams easier, then I’m not going to be the one who takes that off her. I’d just prefer it didn’t come with my face on a fridge in Fortitude Valley.
Also, and I say this with love, Warren: the page says I “decline to comment”. I have never declined to comment. Nobody asked me. This is my comment. Please put it where the other thing was.
Cheers, Jaxon
P.S. I have never had a cold. I don’t know why I’m telling you that. Please don’t put that in.
Editor’s note: We have put that in. For the record, the Collective’s position on Mr Mangan’s letter is as follows. He is tall. He has never had a cold. He works, by his own admission, in a “help desk”, which is where you would put someone if you wanted them to see every computer in a building. He has a plausible human father with a boat, which is exactly the kind of cover story a programme would arrange. He is unusually calm and well-mannered under pressure, like someone raised partly by clipboards. He has asked for the photo to be removed, which is what a hybrid who had been told to keep a low profile would do. We note all of this with affection and without prejudice. We also note that the letter arrived at 2:47 am. — W.D.
A word from management
He sent it at 2:47 am because he works nights, Warren. He told you that at the Show. He's a nice boy and he's just tall. Take the photo down. — Noreen
The photograph remains up pending a ruling from the Tuesday group, who have tabled it for discussion and who are, in the Collective’s experience, very slow to rule on anything involving Gary.
Document U8MC-20-0301. Status: DEBUNKED BY THEM. This file is retained indefinitely, or until the Men in Beige ask for it, whichever is never.